LCU hopes depth pays off against Queens

Last year at this time, Lubbock Christian University women's basketball coach Miles Watters would look down his bench and wonder where his roster went.

Injuries depleted the Lady Chaparrals, who at one point had just six healthy players. That hindrance led to struggles for LCU and resulted in a 3-11 Sooner Athletic Conference mark.

A year later, however, Watters looks down his bench and sees more than two full teams worth of players he would have no problem putting into games in crucial situations. That depth has the LCU coach feeling better as the Lady Chaps open the 1999 SAC schedule today by hosting rival Wayland Baptist University at 6 p.m. in the LCU Fieldhouse.

"I really feel like this is the most talented bunch we've had here in a long time," Watters said. "We go into the game with more depth than we've had in the past, and we feel we can put a little bit more talent on the floor than we've been able to do. We're more solid in rebounding and defense, and we think we have more weapons than we've had in the past."

That feeling comes without having last year's leading scorer, senior wing Kechia Mason, in the mix. Mason spent virtually the entire fall playing for LCU's stellar volleyball team and has had just a few practices with the basketball squad.

That has allowed junior transfer Allison Mooney and senior guard Brandi Grider to step into the leadership roles. Mooney, in her first year after two at South Plains College, leads LCU (10-1 overall) in scoring (15.0 ppg) and is tied for the team lead in steals (41) with junior guard Christy Kirkland, who has come off a season-ending knee injury last year to average 9.1 points and 2.7 steals per game. Grider is second in scoring at 11.4.

But while LCU is relying on newer faces, coach Johnna Pointer's Flying Queens are turning to the familiar face of forward Hazel Taylor. The senior from Trinidad leads the nation in scoring at 29.1 points per game and has helped Wayland (13-2) in the NAIA rankings at No. 4.

"Obviously we can't say that Hazel is not a big part of our offense," Pointer said. "But our other three seniors - Danielle Martin-Welps, Shea Bennett and Jennifer Averett have all three established themselves as offensive threats as well. When we've gotten one or two of them going to counter for Hazel when teams double team or key on her, we've seen some success in that area."

Martin-Welps is second on the team in scoring at 9.1 points per game, followed by Averett at 8.6 and Bennett at 7.5. Taylor is also doing it without the ball, averaging almost seven rebounds and more than six steals per game.

Watters knows the challenge ahead of the Lady Chaps to contain Taylor and said the team is looking forward to that challenge.

"For us to get to where we want to be we have to beat some of these top-ranked people," Watters said. "We're trying to establish a name a little bit and we've talked about that all year long. We haven't been able to compete with (Wayland) much in the past but we feel like we can now."